


The Composer

by soaracrossthesky



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Arc Reactor, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Character Study, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Infinity Gauntlet, Iron Man 1, Mentions of Ludwig van Beethoven, Mentions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Meta, Parallels, References to Classical Music, Vague Spoilers, mentions of classical composers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 17:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soaracrossthesky/pseuds/soaracrossthesky
Summary: “Oh, Tony,” Obadiah had sighed wistfully, “This is your ninth symphony.”________________________A very small piece of character study that wouldn't leave me alone.





	The Composer

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short something but I really needed to get this off my chest.

_“Oh, Tony,”_ Obadiah had sighed wistfully, _“This is your ninth symphony.”_

And it almost had been. The ARC reactor had, at that point, been the invention that was shaping up to become his legacy, his most influential and recognized magnum opus that would irrefutably intertwined with his name.

The ninth symphony was said to be a curse. It was said to be impossible for any composer to write more than nine symphonies before death claimed them. That they would die before completing a tenth. And indeed, the ninth had been Beethoven’s last complete symphony. The musical genius had written it when he had long since gone deaf.

When Tony had built the ARC, he had been blind, soon to be disillusioned and forced to see things for what they had truly been.

There had been nothing but small pieces of preemptive notes, far from done, for a tenth symphony when Beethoven died, much like Tony had the new specifics for the Iron Man suit on the server in his workshop when Obadiah had torn his life source out.

But, where Beethoven had died after a long life, Tony had escaped being brutally murdered and taken on the task of righting his past mistakes.

No, Tony was no Beethoven, his last big work a ninth symphony. He had always had more in common with Mozart. Child prodigy, groomed by his father, with his own share of Salieris, even less talented and even more jealous to make up for it. Both known for being somewhat scandalous, both called ‘ahead of their time’, both sometimes misunderstood in their genius. And a number of symphonies that was far more akin to the marks of the Iron Man armor he had created over the course of time.

_“The DaVinci of our time.” – “Absolutely ridiculous, I don’t paint.”_

And he didn’t. He drew schematics, perhaps, but that was it. Coding, on the other hand, writing programs – especially AIs – was a lot like composing music. His machines sung back to him. He was able to align their tones into a pleasing melody, make their personalities resonate with whomever was willing to hear them out. He had usually kept his AIs in their full extent to himself because society hand been ready for them yet. But then again, even Mozart’s pieces had not resonated with his peers from time to time, only seen and heard for the art they truly were long after his demise.

And Mozart had died quite young and very poor. Not that Tony was at a comparable age anymore, never mind his financial status, but still…

…still, if the arc reactor had been his ninth symphony, he pondered and drew in a shaky breath and grabbed the Infinity Stones out of their sockets, building that gauntlet and implementing the stones into his suit would probably his equivalent of Mozart’s Requiem.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually planned to make it a little bit longer and draw parallels between parts of the requiem text and the final battle of Endgame but along the lines I realized that that could very well be its own piece. So I decided to end it here. Maybe I will do that requiem comparison some other time.
> 
> I'd be very interested to know what you thought about this.


End file.
